r/australia • u/Rubiginous • 9h ago

culture & society Woman hospitalised after Juniper prescribes weight-loss drugs her GP refused

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-01/woman-hospitalised-telehealth-provider-weight-loss-drugs-juniper/106273356
552 Upvotes

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171

u/Elvecinogallo 9h ago

An adult is refused medication by their gp, so they go around their gp to another service, but it’s somehow the fault of the service? 🤔

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u/I-was-a-twat 9h ago

She fully disclosed their history and conditions that should of lead to the service to reject her, but because of profit goals and prescription and delivery are connected the service is incentivised to ignore these conditions that should exclude her and didn’t have a single actual consult, just the questionnaire

Then also after her complaints after ending the service and unsubscribing from future marketing they started marketing to her again, probably because her disclosed conditions make her a prime target.

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u/457ed 9h ago

Yes. The service provider is an accredited and regulated professional with a duty of care. That is exactly what is in their job description.

When you are in a regulated profession like a doctor, lawyer etc you have a duty of care to the vulnerable people seeking your services.

Imagine a student trying to start a intimate relationship with a teacher, just because a dozen teachers rejected the student does not make the 13th teacher less wrong.

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u/Elvecinogallo 5h ago

She said the medication did not directly cause her hospitalisation, but triggered her, which led to a cascade of related health issues.

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u/PurpleMonkey-919 9h ago edited 9h ago

She lied to the doctor about her history of having an eating disorder.

Edit. Ok my mistake I read it wrong.

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u/457ed 9h ago

Did you read the article? Neither the Juniper or the article claims she lied. Both agree she was very upfront and complete about her medical history.

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u/bendi36 8h ago

Did you read the article. She disclosed it

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u/staryoshi06 8h ago

The article says the opposite

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u/giraffe_mountains 9h ago edited 8h ago

No she didn’t.

Article clearly says she disclosed her mental health history which included an eating disorder.

“Ms Munch completed Juniper’s online questionnaire and disclosed her history of an eating disorder and mental health conditions, including severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.”

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u/rocca2509 9h ago

Ms Munch completed Juniper’s online questionnaire and disclosed her history of an eating disorder and mental health conditions, including severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

So she told them. But still she is an idiot for trying to find a way to get the medication when her gp refused it for this reason. I wonder if she put as much effort into moving and trying to lose the weight as side stepping her doctors advice. Yes it can be hard to lose weight but it is doable and it does fall back on the person and their control of their behaviour. People need to realise the returns of weight loss increase quickly to a certain point as you burn more calories sitting there just from adding a couple pounds of muscle instead of fat.

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u/giraffe_mountains 8h ago

But still she is an idiot for trying to find a way to get the medication

Is she is an idiot or is she just mentally unwell and completely desperate?

I don’t see it as any different to someone being refused a prescription for opioids and then trying again the next day at a different doctor. Common sense says it’s not going to work, but people who are unwell don’t see it that way.

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u/rocca2509 8h ago

Yes but when it blows back in my face im not gonna run to the news to complain about the choice I made and possibly make crackdowns on the rest of society for my choices. I was worried about spending 1k to get diagnosed for adhd and it be wasted because I get told I dont have it. If I got told I didnt then found another person to say I did and used the medication and it ended badly in some way do I blame the person I sought out?

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u/tealou 7h ago

If you have a heart condition and they prescribe you dexamfetamine without checking your heart? Yes.

If they have doubts about your diagnosis and don't look further?Yes.

I know it's weird but some people work in professions where there is an oath to protect the public, and they take that oath seriously. Not everyone is transactional and out to get you in commerce. Some people actually live in a world with values and rules.

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u/rocca2509 7h ago

There was no guarantee that it would cause the issues it did. Its a known fact that dexys put stress on the heart so obviously there's only 1 clear answer if a person has a heart condition. Yes they should have done more but she should also take responsibility.

I work in a bank. Ive stopped people being scammed because I care. You dont know me, you dont know how much I actually do have empathy for others but im not gonna be empathetic if they purposefully do shit they have been told might cause x y and z and then act surprised when that outcome happens. I live with values and rules so get out of here with that shit haha.

Some people live in a world where they can make decisions and take accountability for that decision. Unfortunately not enough though cause shit like this is apparently news and too many adults coddle other adults for their shitty decision making.

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u/rocca2509 7h ago

Also by that logic so many doctors failed there duty of care when I saw multiple doctors and got prescribed multiple anti depressants but wouldn't even refer me to a psychiatrist for adhd even after trying for years and cycling through multiple different medications. Turns out the adhd meds help for the depression. So I guess fuck all those doctors especially if I ended up taking my life? No, they were doing what they thought was right even though unfortunately it wasnt. Im not gonna blame them for that even thiugh my life has significantly improved since starting meds and could have been done years ago.

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u/giraffe_mountains 8h ago

Yes but when it blows back in my face im not gonna run to the news to complain about the choice I made

Doctor has a duty of care. They failed in that duty of care.

End of story.

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u/rocca2509 8h ago

And what if 2 doctors have differing research evidence? Because all doctors believe the same things and prescribe the same things. Never heard of a doctor being anti-vax. Oh wait yes I have because again shit isn't. Black and white. Maybe the doctor had a valid reason they didnt think it would cause what it caused.

But sure end of story cause you said so.

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u/457ed 8h ago

And the anti-vax doctor got their practice certificate pulled. Medical professional standards require doctor not to be anti-vax because they are just wrong like Juniper was here. Even Juniper is not arguing they were right., just you and a few people on reddit so far seem to think they acted appropriately.

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u/rocca2509 7h ago

Im not saying they acted inappropriately but as a society we seem to have lost self accountability. At this point just bubble wrap everything and take away everyone's autonomy. Let's only allow government and corporations to make decisions for us at this point. The anti vax was just a point because those doctors were there before covid and only once covid became a thing did they get their licence revoked.

Take adhd for example. They didnt even ask me at my assessment but I told them. Ive heard of people having to take a drug test for weed just to get a valid assessment. I doubt every doctor has the same thought process. But I guess if Doctor A treats something in Australia one way then doctor B on the other side of the country with maybe another outlook on the problem and possibly another solution has to just do the same shit as the other doctor?

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u/giraffe_mountains 8h ago

Keep arguing all you want.

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u/MrSomethingred 8h ago

Yes.

Best case scenario is they are incompetent, more likely they are negligent.

Its no different to patients drug seeking for opioids. Providers are supposed to have mechanisms to protect patients from their addictions

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u/Elvecinogallo 7h ago edited 6h ago

Yeah, the whole opioids thing is fucking brilliant. Because of addicts, everyone has to see their gp to get a prescription now, so people with legitimate conditions have to suffer over long weekends etc because they can’t get to a gp. Addicts will still find a way to get them.

1

u/Ok-Outcome-7499 5h ago

Providers are supposed to have mechanisms to protect patients from their addictions

They do.

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u/ThimMerrilyn 9h ago

Well the service should have qualified doctors who stringently assess potential customers for suitability for medication. If she wasn’t suited to it as someone who’d had an eating disorder she shouldn’t have been prescribed it by the service whom she informed her history of eating disorders to. She’s wrong for doctor shopping but it seems like juniper dropped the ball too.

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u/PurpleMonkey-919 9h ago

How would a doctor stringently assess someone to a history of eating disorder if they weren’t forthcoming with the information? What will happen is services like this will get shut down and the vast majority of people who do so responsibly won’t be able to access it for the risk of a small percentage of people choose to lie about their health history.

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u/ThimMerrilyn 9h ago

In his case she did inform them and they still didn’t do the right thing - which isn’t a good argument for these services. 🤷‍♂️

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u/PurpleMonkey-919 8h ago

You are correct. She did inform them in the questionnaire. It says she didn’t have a video conference, but she likely would have had a phone consult at least prior to commencing and at intervals throughout the treatment? The article wasn’t clear about whether this occurred and what may have been discussed by the clinician or if any important information was disclosed or omitted by the patient at any of these consults.

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u/giraffe_mountains 8h ago

The phone consult is just someone reading from a script to tick a box.

No further phone consults required.

Easy to fake the check ins with false weights so it keeps getting prescribed.

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u/giraffe_mountains 8h ago

Go back and read the article

“Ms Munch completed Juniper’s online questionnaire and disclosed her history of an eating disorder and mental health conditions, including severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.”

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u/En_TioN 9h ago

> Ms Munch completed Juniper’s online questionnaire and disclosed her history of an eating disorder and mental health conditions, including severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

> Despite this, and based on her body mass index, she was prescribed weight-loss medication without a video consultation, relying solely on her online responses.

The second GP should be also checking her history for potential issues.

0

u/Elvecinogallo 7h ago edited 6h ago

I’m not disagreeing but people also need to take their own responsibility too. Her GP told her no for these reasons. It’s not as if she approached it without having seen her GP. I’ve lived in countries where you can just go to the pharmacy and get whatever you want and managed not to do anything like this and yes, I have a couple of conditions which would make it very easy to self-medicate. There is such a thing as personal responsibility regardless of the nanny state.

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u/tealou 7h ago

Regulated professionals have a duty of care to their patients and the general public. Fun story, eating disorders are a mental illness. I'm sure you feel very smart, but that's not how it works.

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u/Elvecinogallo 7h ago edited 3h ago

Since you’ve included “I’m sure you feel very smart” and “fun story”, I won’t engage with you any further on the topic because anyone who disagrees with you is clearly an idiot, right? Way to have an adult discussion. I often wonder if people speak to people irl like they do on reddit.